by BJ Wane
Damien did mention they would all gather together in the great room after their meeting and she recalled what Ava had told her went on when they all got together. If they were planning on attacking Isabelle that night, Abby would make sure she sent Damien into battle as strong as she could make him.
A big splash of cold water made Abby jerk upright with a startled squeal right before she was dumped off her float from the butt of Micah’s large head. Sputtering, she shoved her long wet hair out of her face and glared at the large feline who was swimming lazy circles around her. “I swear, Micah, one of these days I’m going to get even.” Swimming over to the steps, she wondered when she was going to learn to be more wary of the tiger’s playful streak. “Thanks for the warning.” She glared at Tasha who was sitting calmly at the top of the steps, an innocent look in her large gold eyes.
“I would’ve called out a warning, but it was more fun watching them surprise you again.” Grace was smiling widely as she came outside, sat on the edge of the pool and slipped her bare feet into the cool water.
“Great. Now you’re siding with them. Caitlin still at the hospital?”
“Yes, but she promised she’d return before dusk and I believed her. She’s still pretty shook up over her friend’s attack.” Grace could sympathize with the guilt portrayed on Caitlin’s face when she told them what happened this morning after returning from the hospital. She had been brief, her face etched with weariness as she went upstairs to sleep for a few hours before returning to the hospital. Even though things were great between her and Jacob, she still had bad moments over how close she had come to losing him. She hoped Caitlin didn’t make the same mistake she had by ignoring her growing feelings for Jon and Luc instead of dealing with them before it was too late.
“I wish she would’ve let us go with her, for moral support if nothing else.”
“I think she’s still struggling with not only Bobby’s close call, but what to do about her connection to the twins. I can sympathize with her on that score.” Rubbing her neck, Grace shuddered as she recalled the pleasure of Jacob’s bite, the ecstasy of mating with him and how her own stubbornness had almost made her miss out on those experiences.
“What’s it like?” Abby asked wistfully, trying desperately not to be jealous of her new friend’s happiness.
“The whole bite me, suck my blood thing? Awesome.” Seeing Abby’s crestfallen look, Grace added, “Don’t give up, Abby. We’ve all seen the way Damien is with you. There’s no doubt he wants you.”
“Not bad enough. I don’t suppose Jacob knows why he’s holding back?” Abby wrapped her arm around Micah’s neck as he settled next to her on the pool steps, his lip curling in a snarl when Tasha tried to join them. “Quit being a bully, Micah,” Abby admonished him then patted the spot on her other side for Tasha.
Smiling at the way the cats vied for Abby’s attention, Grace said, “No, he swears Damien has always been closed mouthed about his time with Isabelle and what happened that sent him fleeing away from her.”
Whatever it was, obviously Damien thought she couldn’t handle it, or maybe it was he who was still having trouble coping with whatever he had done. Regardless, she hadn’t held out much hope for their future until this morning. Now, she was not only looking forward to seeing some of her new friends again, but she was hoping Damien’s plans included taking that final step with her.
Caitlin made it back to the plantation a good hour before dusk, feeling much better about Bobby’s condition. This morning she had followed the ambulance in her car, still too afraid for him to hope for a full recovery. But this afternoon he had looked much better, his color normal, the bruising and swelling on his face already healing as was the now small wound on his neck. The biggest relief was his belief that he was mugged and that Jon and Luc had already left when she heard the gunshot and had run downstairs in time to see the back of a hooded man fleeing down the alley. The police had also believed her story, much to her relief, even though she knew there was no evidence to the contrary.
“How is he?” Abby asked as they came in from the pool just as Caitlin was about to come outside.
Caitlin blinked, swearing she could see a tiger’s tail before it disappeared into the trees at the edge of the lawn. “He’s going to be fine,” she answered, thinking her short three hour nap before heading back to the hospital hadn’t been nearly long enough. “I told him I’m closing the bar this week to give him time to recover. Truth is I’m hoping these guys will have neutralized this threat by next week. I’m not going to endanger my friends or any of my patrons, but I’m also not going to give up my livelihood. Somebody better do something, and quick,” she stated with a scowl.
“I’m pretty sure that’s what the big meeting’s about next weekend,” Grace told her. She too was ready for the threat of more attacks to be over.
While Abby agreed she was more than ready for the guys to band together and rid them all of these rogues as well as their maker, she was also hoping Damien will seal their bond that night.
Caitlin spent the next hour fixing something to eat with Abby and Grace, enjoying her time with them as well as the chance to get to know them better. They compared their sexual experiences with the guys, Caitlin and Abby getting a kick out of how easy it was to make Grace blush. Both women wanted a firsthand account of what it was like being with two men, and much to Caitlin’s chagrin, she found herself wanting to relive that experience as she told them. Since meeting Jon and Luc, she hadn’t spent time on the futile effort of denying the attraction, but until she was ready to give them the commitment they wanted, she wasn’t going to have sex with them again. Of course, if they kept coming up with creative, inventive ways to get her off, like driving her into sexual orbit with an old fashioned, over the knee spanking, she could put off making that decision indefinitely.
“Uh oh, what’re you thinking?” Abby asked with a grin as she scooped up her last bite of pasta. From the glazed look that just came over Caitlin’s face, Abby suspected she was thinking of the twins.
“How much fun a little discipline can be.” Caitlin wanted to surprise them, but from the knowing smirks on her friend’s faces, she guessed they already had firsthand knowledge of what she was talking about. Raising a brow, she questioned, “You too?”
With another vivid blush, Grace admitted with a side look toward Abby, “My first time was in front of Abby and Damien, after watching them.”
Abby’s cheeky grin was accompanied with the obvious shifting on her chair as she told them, “Last night, with the wood side of my hairbrush.”
“Ouch.” Caitlin could only imagine what that would feel like, her imagination good enough to have her squirming in both sympathy and arousal.
“Yeah,” Grace sighed dreamily.
The three of them giggled like teenagers before Abby admitted, “It would’ve been awesome if Damien had allowed me to come. The jerk actually said I didn’t deserve an orgasm for blatantly going against his orders. If I didn’t love him so much, I’d resent him for that. As it is, the next time he touches me, I know I’m going to explode right then and there.”
“We’ll put that to the test shortly,” Damien said as he entered the kitchen, the sound of the three women laughing drawing him downstairs before the others had even woken. “How is your friend, Caitlin?”
“He’s going to be okay.” Standing, Caitlin put her plate in the dishwasher before excusing herself. “I think I’ll go upstairs and read some more of that book Abby gave me.”
Damien raised a dark brow, giving her a knowing look, but it was Grace who bravely said, “Take it from me, Caitlin, avoiding them won’t work.”
“It’ll have to for now.” She didn’t mean to snap at her, but Caitlin wasn’t going to be pushed into anything permanent, especially something as life altering as mating with two vampires.
She managed to get to the room they had given her without seeing Jon or Luc and spent the next ninety minutes reading the Book of the Crescent Cr
eed that held a wealth of information. Unfortunately, it gave her more than she wanted to think about, like how she would stay almost thirty as long as she was sexually involved with her mates, how taking her blood would enable them to achieve their full strength instead of just ramping it up like sex with another would and how their bond would only grow stronger as time progressed. Tossing it aside, she paced the large, more than comfortable room, unsure of what to do with herself or her growing feelings for both brothers. Apparently, avoiding Jon and Luc didn’t appease her body as her edginess made her feel as if she was going to come right out of her skin. She hated this out of control feeling, hated the way her life has been tossed into turmoil, and simply didn’t know what to do with these slowly emerging feelings she had never expected, or wanted, to feel for anyone.
Looking at the clock, she saw it was after ten. She was a night person, used to sleeping all day and working all night. Sundays were her only days off, so she didn’t change her schedule, and even though she only had three hours sleep today, she wasn’t ready to call it a night. Plenty of time had passed for Jon and Luc to have given up on her making an appearance downstairs and, hopefully, had left to search for any more of those creepy looking feral beings. Descending the stairs, she heard laughter and splashing coming from outside and thought joining the others for a nighttime swim might help clear her head of the cobwebs filling it.
Her hope of joining in on some inane fun in an attempt to clear her head of all the conflicting thoughts vying for space was abruptly crushed when she saw Abby and Grace skinny dipping with Damien and Jacob. She should return to her room, she thought as she stood rooted by the windows, making no move to do so. She had never been an envious person, never wasted time pining for what others had, but watching the four of them enjoy each other with unabashed delight made her wish her own relationship with Jon and Luc wasn’t still up in the air. She knew the happiness Abby and Grace were basking in hadn’t come easily, which gave her encouragement that her own insecurities would eventually work themselves out.
The water play suddenly turned erotic, Damien and Jacob pulling Abby and Grace to the steps and covering their wet, slick bodies with their own. Like any red-blooded woman, she could enjoy and appreciate both men’s tight, wet asses, but didn’t want to get caught ogling. Reluctantly. she started to turn away, but was kept in place by a tall, hard body, a body that had hers revved up in a matter of seconds.
“They won’t mind if we watch.”
Caitlin turned her head up to look into Jon’s hazel eyes, the unmistakable bulge of his erection pressing intimately against her ass, “How do you know?”
Jon smiled slightly. “I know.”
It wasn’t the unmistakable sounds of sex that were carrying through the open French doors that had Caitlin ducking around him, but the aching desire to grab Jon’s hand and pull him out to the pool to join the others. “I thought you had already left,” she stated accusingly. Of course, she knew it wasn’t fair to blame him because she was suffering in more ways than one over her decision not to have sex with them again until she was ready to accept a no holds barred relationship.
“Relax, Cat.” Jon couldn’t help but see what was going on in the pool, nor could he help but wish they were out there indulging themselves, but both he and Luc had agreed to give Caitlin some time to deal with everything they had subjected her to since walking into the Down and Dirty a week ago. Because of the strong pull of the physical attraction and needs they all experienced when first meeting their mates, members of the brethren typically consummated their relationships much faster than humans did, but the uprising of Isabelle and her attacks had thrown a wrench in Jon, Luc’s, Jacob’s and Damien’s pairings, adding a complication to an already tenable situation. As difficult as it was to hold back, especially after already having her, Jon and Luc refused to pressure her into a decision.
Stepping back, he told her, “We’re on our way out now. If you need anything, Damien and Jacob will be available.”
He didn’t give her a chance to reply as he turned and met Luc in the foyer and she watched them both dissolve into a fine mist, leaving her to return upstairs alone to deal with her heart that was beginning to feel as hollow as the Tin Man’s.
Caitlin was awake and up by one o’clock the next afternoon and at a loss of what to do with her day. She wasn’t used to having so much free time in the afternoons, her late nights making it difficult to get to bed before four or five in the morning. Usually, she didn’t wake until late afternoon, just in time to shower and get downstairs to open the bar. Bobby had called and told her he was being released, but his new love interest was picking him up and he’d be in good hands this week while recuperating. At least one of them knew what, or who they wanted. The mansion was quiet as she went downstairs, almost too quiet. It gave her a creepy feeling thinking about the guys, wondering what they looked like as they slept somewhere dark on the premises. Did they lay with their arms folded on their chest, still as death, or did they sleep like they were still human? Since picturing them laying as if dead wigged her out, she talked herself into believing they were in one of the numerous bedrooms throughout the house and still breathing.
By the time she had a cup of coffee, she knew she would go nuts hanging around the plantation all afternoon. Both Abby and Grace had invited her to drop in today at the bookstore and library to visit and right now, that sounded like a good idea. Going from indifferent parents to being a street rat to living above a bar hadn’t provided her with many opportunities to make friends, especially after Liddy had moved away. On top of having this whole ‘mate’ business in common, she had discovered she enjoyed spending time with the other two women.
Three hours later, Caitlin drove back through the tall, double gates of Damien’s plantation home and parked in front. She had enjoyed seeing Abby’s bookstore, having a sandwich and tea with her before going to the library. There she took Grace’s advice and researched the Preston brothers, discovering they were born in western Texas in 1833 and were believed to have been murdered and buried somewhere on their ranch in 1865 by carpetbaggers. There were no pictures of them, but she did unearth a grainy photo of their farmstead. They hadn’t had much, but they were willing to defend what they had. She couldn’t help but admire the hard working men they had been as well as the triumphant way they had made the best of their new life after being turned. Most men would not be as noble and self-giving when given immortality as well as the strength and powers that came with it.
Unfortunately, that information brought her no closer to making a decision on whether to pursue this relationship or not. Stepping out of her car, she looked up at the majestic plantation home that held ghosts from over a century and a half of existence. All along the upper floor, small terraces jutted out from double French doors, and she wondered again which bedroom her want to be lovers were holed up in.
She was too restless to go inside and wait around for Abby and Grace to get off work or for the sun to go down so the guys could rise. Irritated that she thought she needed someone to keep her company, she looked across the wide green expanse of the well-kept lawn to the moss covered trees that led into the bayou. Perfect, she thought with an uplifting of her spirits as she headed that way. As a child, she had come to know the beauty and the treachery of the bayous and had a healthy respect for both. She knew which plants to stay away from, could detect the shape and movement of an alligator yards away and could still shimmy up a tree with the agility of a gold medal gymnast if need be. She had never felt so free as when she was alone in the bayous and she has missed the freedom of losing herself in the swampy, tree shrouded depths since Dan took her in.
Eager to explore and test her skills once again, she instantly felt the cooler air as she entered the dense landscape. As she explored Damien’s property, she soon discovered one bayou was much the same as another and had no trouble navigating through the damp brush, making note of certain landmarks that would lead her back out. She was careful about
looking up periodically for the barely discernible sunlight, mindful of the time she would need to get back before her vamps awoke.
That thought stopped her in her tracks as she realized that was the first time she had willingly thought of them as hers. Maybe she was closer to making a decision than she thought. Looking at her surroundings, she had to admit the moss shrouded, ‘sleeping waters’ of the wetlands provided the perfect background for the legends of voodoo rituals and vampire lore, the perfect setting for Damien and the brethren. She was grinning as she turned to head back to the house, again marveling at the ease with which she had accepted the truth about the existence of vampires.
Halfway back, she came to an abrupt halt, her grin disappearing as two huge tigers emerged from the trees to block her path. “Lions and tigers and bears, oh my,” she mumbled under her breath as she took a small step back. She tried not to let her fear show, tried to control the shaking that was taking over her body as she swallowed convulsively over and over in an attempt to keep the bile lodged in her throat from coming up. One more slow step back brought her up against a tree and had both tigers taking one step toward her. Without further thought, she turned and grabbed hold of a sturdy vine, pulling herself up to the lowest branch with a swing of her body.
“You guys stay right there,” she told them shakily as they both moved closer to the tree. “Oh, crap, do tigers climb trees?” Unable to answer her own question, she swung up to the next branch just in case. Looking down, she was relieved to see they were just sitting there calmly, staring up at her as if she was nuts. Straddling the heavy limb, she relaxed a little when they made no attempt to come up after her. “Good kitties,” she praised them softly, wondering how the hell she was going to get back to the safety of the manor.
